Angels And Demons

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He taught them on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority. In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” 

Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down in front of them and came out of him without doing him any harm. 

They were all amazed and said to one another, “What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.  (Luke 4:31-37)

It is curious that the unclean demon within the man had him acknowledge that Jesus was the “Holy One of God.”  Yet, the man asks, “Have you come to destroy us?”  Perhaps it was the demon speaking for the other unnamed demons within knowing that Jesus would destroy them.  Demons are sneaky creatures who constantly try to deceive us, and they often succeed.

Fortunately for us we also have the spirit of angels within us.  Father Andrew Greeley in his classic 1974 book “The Devil You Say! Man and His Personal Devils and Angels” elaborates.  For example, we have the Demon of Alienation and the Angel of Loyalty.  We have the Groupthink Demon and the Angel of Individuality.  We have the Scapegoat Demon and the Tolerant Angel.  We have the Privatist Demon and the Angel of Social Responsibility.  We have the Fear Demon and the Angel of Hope.  We have the Ethnocentric Demon and the Angel of Pluralism. The list goes on.  

Greeley describes the “dynamics of our daily struggles with the principalities and the powers of evil.  Demons exist…Any naïve innocent who thinks that by having rid himself [herself] of belief in a personal devil and is free from daily conflict with his [her] own particular demons, is kidding himself [herself]”  

When the demons whisper in our ears, our angels say “Be quiet!  Come out of him [her]!”  The more we heed Jesus and follow him, the louder our angels shout.  These are our better angels to whom we must listen for our own salvation and that of our country.

Deacon David Pierce